What’s your go to tools?

So as a bit about me, I’m a college student living in a dorm, and currently have a 12.5″ skillet, a 14″ cast iron wok, a cheap $20 5.2 qt enameled Dutch oven, a paprikum spice grinder, an immersion blender, and other misc tools.

What do you commonly use, and are there any tools yeast you think I skills use? (Such as a karahi or tadka?)

I’m also currently looking into potentially getting a crepe pan/tava for dosas, crepes, pancakes, etc. Some options include Staub, DeBuyer carbon steel, and Demeyere searing pan. Thoughts on this and recommendations?

Since cooking has been a hobby of mine for nigh on 30 years, I have amassed quite the collection of cookware and utensils, including the Calphalon anodized cookware. But truth to tell, I think Calphalon sucks. I tend to gravitate to just a few items:

* Cast iron skillets and a dutch oven. My large cast iron fry pan doubles as a tava. It’s nice and wide (12″ iirc) and flat.
* Six quart stainless steel “macaroni pot” (I am Italian descent, after all) that doubles as the perfect size for an idli tree.
* A couple of 4 qt. stainless steel pots, and a stainless steel and copper kadai that are the perfect size for making 3 cups of basmati rice (becomes 5 cups cooked), and most all the curries I make.

That’s pretty much what I rely on for cooking. I would like a small, maybe 3 or 4 qt. pressure cooker. We have a 6 qt. size, but I don’t cook enough to make good use of it.

If your skillet is a flat one and not ridged, then you can use it for dosas/crepes/pancakes. You don’t need a separate pan for that. In fact, a cast iron skillet is ideal for dosa.

You might want to get a really small saucepan for the tadka/tempering.

An Instant Pot is something I would highly recommend – you can make so many one-pot meals and with most Indian dishes, you can start with the saute mode and saute your veggies and spices, and then add water/stock/tomato puree and then dial in the pressure cooker setting and then you don’t even have to watch over the cooker. It will finish cooking and then turn itself off and go into the warm mode.

You mentioned that you have a cast iron wok but do you not have a good flat bottomed pan? If not, you certainly need one. I also noticed that your utensil sizes are quite large – is this a shared kitchen in your dorm? Do you generally cook for multiple people – or do you cook a large batch and then refrigerate it?